Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Re-purpose that dress!

Sometimes I lay in bed at night and think about crafty things. Or something triggers an idea. I have a friend who mentioned the other day that she was planning on doing a "trash the dress" photo shoot next summer. She got married this past summer, and has a gorgeous gown. I had only recently heard of this new thing called "trash the dress". It kind of horrified me. Why on earth would you destroy a beautiful dress just because you don't think it will be passed down, or worn ever again by someone else? I could think of a half a dozen things right off the top of my head that you could do with the gown.

So I googled my idea this morning, and there is of course people out there with the same thoughts as me. Use the fabric from the gown to make other things instead of destroying it. It will mean more down the road I think. Here are some ideas I thought of, as well as ideas by others.

1. christening gowns for your children2. purses and garter belts (In this example the dress was owned by a woman that had held on to her gown hoping her daughter would wear it someday. The purses and garter belts were made for her 3 grand daughters.3. pretty lingerie4. pretty pillows6. Donate the dress to someone that can't afford a dress7. Use the fabric in a quilt8. Have a bear made9. have the dress dyed and remade into another formal gown. 10. sachets11. Christmas ornamentsand best of all12. A Halloween Costume ( fashion some spiky scales and a spiky tail, and you could go as bridezilla! :) lol!

I didn't have a traditional wedding gown, but wore a dress that had special meaning for me. If I had bought the traditional wedding gown, I would definitely have re-purposed it!

Ok I thought I had better revise this in case I offend someone

I thought some more about my posting from this morning, and I failed to make mention of what if the marriage goes wrong, and the dress has no meaning at all. I mean someone that purchases a beautiful dress is hoping that the decision they made to get married is the right one, but there is always the chance that things go wrong.

I think, and this is just my opinion that giving the dress to someone else, or donating would be the best option. Or, you might have given your ex a creative outlet to make some big bucks at your expense. I ran across this website in my research this morning. It is funny, but sad at the same time.My Ex Wife's Wedding Dress

7 comments:

trashing a dress is a sign of conspicuous consumption, or infantilism. I can sort of understand it for the sake of "art" perhaps, but it seems really pretentious; akin to lighting cigarettes with 100-dollar bills.

I've got 2 wedding dresses in storage in my house. One I made myself and I remember spending an entire winter hand-sewing lace and pearls onto it - NO WAY is it getting trashed!

It may wind up as bags or other garments at some point, who knows?

Another thing to do with fine clothing that no longer fits your wardrobe or your body, is to donate them to a theatre group. I donated some of my father's clothing, baseball trophies and other things, hoping they'll find another life as props and costume pieces, instead of filling up a landfill someplace.

That is a great idea Wendy. I was thinking use it as a costume as well. The woman I mentioned actually used to let her grand daughters play dress up with it when they were little. I could understand the art aspect too, but it seems such a waste.

I'm storing my dress just in case my daughter wants it, but I kept the bottom of it which was cut off for hemming and I've made three friends garters out of that for their weddings. It's a fun gift to be able to give :)

An example of the latter would be an website I found while doing research called http://myexwifesweddingdress.com/ In which a woman left her gown with her ex, and said do what ever you want with it the day she moved out. He has made a sport out of using this dress. It is funny, yet sad.

I, too, was astonished that someone would want to trash their wedding dress. I had mine on display at our 25th anniversary celebration. My mother did, too, as well as her 50th. So much meaning and love in the dress. I do, however, like some of the ideas on your list. And I know a mother who made her baby's dedication dress from hers.